We’re really pleased to be collaborating with the National Baccalaureate Trust on their grassroots accreditation program, which kicks off this term, and think this an exciting step forward in moving towards a more expansive educational offer for all learners.

With all the political noise around ‘Baccalaureates’ we wanted to set our our joint view on this, below, and encourage any schools or colleges that would like to join the program this year to get involved!

A National Baccalaureate for England

We welcome discussion about offering secondary school pupils a broader education up to the age of 18.

At the National Baccalaureate Trust, we have been working to design an exciting new type of leavers’ award for students, which acknowledges all our young people’s achievements, including academic and technical qualifications as well as their participation in the arts, sport, and civic activity.

With the range of pressures facing schools and colleges, and the need to establish more parity of esteem between academic and technical routes, now is the time to broaden our understanding of education so that our young people are properly equipped to thrive in the 21st century.

But a full national baccalaureate will need clear models, adequate funding, and careful planning before any launch if we are to bring parents and teachers and the wider community along with us.

This September the National Baccalaureate Trust has launched a pilot scheme where schools run their own accredited baccalaureate programmes. We have interest from both primary and secondary schools, state, and independent schools, with examples from primary, KS3, KS4 and sixth form.

Students complete their core curriculum such as GCSEs, A levels and BTECS, an extended personal project and a personal development programme typically including creative, physical and leadership or service-related activities.

Working with Rethinking Assessment our pilot schools are also developing a digital profile that allows students to capture a full record of their endeavours in a format that can be easily sent to colleges or employers.

This broader vision for education and achievement is possible right now, indeed it is already happening in our pilot schools. Any school wishing to find out more about our baccalaureate model, or join our pilot schemes, can find out more via our website nationalbacctrust.org.

Also see: Towards a National Baccalaureate for England, by Tom Sherrington

Note to editors:

The National Baccalaureate Trust was established in 2015 to look at ways of developing a richer secondary school experience and valuing a broader range of achievements than exam results alone.

Rethinking Assessment is a non-partisan coalition of school leaders from across the state and independent sectors, joining leading researchers, key policy-makers, employers and higher education representatives in order to broaden and modernise assessment to fully and fairly prepare young people for a dynamic world. We have two main aims:

* To make the argument for change through case studies, analysis, evidence and thoughtful blogs
* To provide workable solutions, practical ideas and approaches to make assessment fairer, broader and more equitable.